The Health Care Reform Effort - Part Deux

Or you could say that this slowdown in growth in costs is attributable to Obamacare, and this improvement will expand once the rest of the law takes effect.

Given the changes my plan has made in advance of the upcoming Affordable Care Act provisions (I will never call it Obamacare until we start calling the Great Recession something related to W), I'd say this is by far the case since they have made numerous steps to increase both preventative care and make general care visits more affordable so that people will actually go to the doctor before they get really fucking sick with something that requires ER visits or hospitalization.

Which makes Michael Russ a big fat fucking liar and a whore.

Damn, and I have been trying to watch what I eat and go to they gym. Granted I have not had Zimmerman like weight loss, but the fat comment is still kind of harsh.

Michael without quoting your earlier response, I think we will simply have to disagree. Where I normally do agree that informed consumers are better consumers, I think medicine is so vital and so specialized that we should simply be able to find a doctor we like and then rely blindly on their advice. When a doctor tells me I need a scan to be sure there is no cancer, as a consumer, I don't want to be put in a position of questioning the necessity or cost of the scan. I just want to say "you're the doc." -And frankly, I do think I have the capacity to understand better than a lot of people. Keep in mind that about a quarter of our population can't locate Canada on a map of North America. They deserve good care, but should we put the onus on them to understand the cost benefit consequences of several medical options. To me, that is a very poor idea.

Some people don't know how to disagree without being disagreeable, Michael. It's a big deal to them. It's kind of a tragedy since my entire adolescent life I believed only Republicans were assholes.

Please. We're all hypocrites.

Am not, you douche!

No problem. I think you and I are much closer politically then you would think by how ofteen we dissagree on this board. This general difference of whether it is better to leave things more up to the individual, knowing that a segment of the population may not make good choices vs the government asserting more control knowing that me breed some inefficiencies is probably at the heart of most of our disagreements.

In general there probably is no "correct" answer to that dilemna anyway, and the country will bounce back and forth between the two views for a long time.

Yes.

Wouldn't this one be easier?

You don't find many people that know how to take a joke anymore. Good an ya

ZOMG you suck

Hit it right between 3rd & short

Speak for yourself

Yeah, you're just a bastard.

Rack'em

It would. I've repped you too recently, so +1 owed.

I agree. None of the provisions of Obamacare have kicked in enough yet to make a difference.

Plus we've had Romneycare in MA for almost 5 years now and saw the same trend this year.

All the hospitals around here noted much fewer admissions this year than last year....reason ? A mild flu season.

If Obama can cure the common cold than what can't he do ?

Sounds like a great way to keep cost down, Can't find Canada, then no healthcare for you.

I would add anyone that call evolution "chance" should also not get healthcare.

It is because not only Conservatives live in a bubble, Liberals also live in their own bubble. We all do one way or another.

I beg to differ. The information is there. As just one example, Food, Inc. was a documentary about exactly this issue. It was, predictably, attended primarily by people who already knew about a lot of it.

In DC many of the bus stops have posters from Monsanto making claims about the great things they are doing to solve starvation in the world. If they were forced to tell the real truth, it would be very different information conveyed about the genetically-modified seeds they are trying to force on the world.

By the way, I'm definitely not disagreeing that more education would be worthwhile. This is an area where the lack of government leadership (both in education and in regulation) is apparent and it means the food supply of the average American is much poorer than the food supply almost anywhere else.

It was more an attack on the GOP-led effort to stop the 'war on Salt' that the Obama administration was 'waging.' Jesus, at this point the GOP is almost a 'political party.' Not a corporate lobbying firm.

Oh my, the “GOP-led war against the 'War on Salt'”. LOL! Does this mean the “Democratic war on the GOP’s ‘War on dogs’” has been already abandoned? Shoot, that one was just getting fun.

This is an actual Fox News headline. Here's Michelle Malkin.

Its getting so weird its even confusing Fish...

Forget it he's rolling...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI"]Animal House: Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor - YouTube[/ame]

This is not exactly about Health Care Reform, per se, but I thought some of you might get a chuckle out of it.

I am involved in an out-patient surgery center (ASC) that does only eye surgery. We have various agencies that make sure we are doing things correctly. One of the biggest ones we deal with of course is CMS, since they pay all the Medicare bills.

Here is some information we just got from CMS concerning quality measures (i.e. how many infections, complications, etc we have) :


“A QualityNet account is required to submit quality measure data to the QualityNet Web site and, in accordance with CMS policy, a QualityNet administrator is necessary to set-up a user account for the purpose of submitting this information to the QualityNet Web site.

The main purpose of a QualityNet administrator is to serve as a point of
contact for security purposes for quality reporting programs. We believe from ourexperience that a QualityNet administrator typically fulfills a variety of tasks related to quality reporting, such as creating, approving, editing, and terminating QualityNet user accounts within an organization, and monitoring QualityNet usage to maintain proper CMS-1588-P 925 security and confidentiality measures. Thus, we highly recommend that ASCs have and
maintain a QualityNet administrator. However, we are not proposing that ASCs be required to do so for the CY 2014 payment determination because ASCs are not required to submit data to the quality data warehouse for the CY 2014 payment determination (76 FR 74504) and we do not want to unduly burden ASCs by requiring ASCs to have a QualityNet administrator.

We note that a QualityNet account is not necessary to access
information that is posted to the QualityNet Web site, such as specifications manuals andeducational materials.
As finalized in the CY 2012 OPPS/ASC final rule with comment period
(76 FR 74504 through 74509), for the CY 2015 payment determination, we require ASCs to submit structural measure data to the QualityNet Web page. To enter these data into the CMS data system, we are proposing that ASCs will need to identify and register a Quality Net administrator who follows the registration process located on the QualityNet Web site and submits the information as specified on this site.

Because submission of structural measure data is not required until the July 1, 2013 to August 15, 2013 time period, we are proposing that ASCs would be required to have a QualityNet administrator at the time facilities submit structural measure data in 2013 for the CY 2015 payment determination, which is no later than August 15, 2013. ASCs may have a QualityNet administrator prior to this date, but we are not proposing that ASCs be required to do so.


We note that there are necessary mailing and processing procedures for having a QualityNet administrator."

Can someone who speaks bureaucrat translate please

"Una cuenta de QualityNet está obligado a presentar los datos de medición de la calidad en el sitio Web QualityNet y, de conformidad con la política de CMS, un administrador de QualityNet es necesario configurar una cuenta de usuario con el propósito de presentar esta información en el sitio Web QualityNet.

El propósito principal de un administrador QualityNet es servir como un punto de
póngase en contacto por motivos de seguridad para los programas de información de calidad. Creemos que a partir ourexperience que un administrador de QualityNet normalmente cumple una variedad de tareas relacionadas con la calidad de los informes, como la creación, aprobación, edición, y la terminación de cuentas de usuario QualityNet dentro de una organización y supervisión del uso de QualityNet para mantener adecuada CMS-1588-P 925 de seguridad y las medidas de confidencialidad. Por lo tanto, le recomendamos que ASC tiene y
mantener un administrador QualityNet. Sin embargo, no estamos proponiendo que la ASC se requiere para hacerlo para la determinación de pago CY 2014 por ASC no están obligados a presentar los datos en el almacén de calidad de los datos para la determinación de pago CY 2014 (76 FR 74504) y no queremos que indebidamente ASC carga exigiendo ASC tener un administrador de QualityNet.

Observamos que una cuenta QualityNet no es necesario acceder a
información que se publica en el sitio Web de QualityNet, tales como manuales de especificaciones de materiales educativos impulsados.
Como fue aprobado en el CY 2012 OPPS / ASC regla final con periodo de comentarios
(76 FR 74504 a través de 74.509), para la determinación de pago CY 2015, se requiere ASC para enviar los datos estructurales de medida a la página Web QualityNet. Para introducir estos datos en el sistema CMS de datos, estamos proponiendo que los ASC tendrá que identificar y registrar a un administrador de red de calidad que sigue el proceso de registro se encuentra en el sitio Web de QualityNet y presenta la información como se especifica en este sitio.

Debido a la presentación de datos sobre las medidas estructurales no se requiere hasta el 1 julio 2013 a 15 agosto 2013 período de tiempo, estamos proponiendo que los ASC se debe tener un administrador de QualityNet en el momento de presentar los datos estructurales de las instalaciones de medida, en 2013, para el CY 2015 determinación de pago, que es no más tarde del 15 de agosto de 2013. ASC puede tener un administrador de QualityNet antes de esta fecha, pero no estamos proponiendo que la ASC se requiere para hacerlo.


Tomamos nota de que existen los procedimientos necesarios y el procesamiento de correo para tener un administrador de QualityNet ".